Athletics in the UK: The Rise and Fall of the BAF

119 What about the athletes? conquer Everest) and together with London Marathon co-founder John Disley, he promoted orienteering as a serious sport. For a few years I was a director of the London Marathon and I recall an occasion when I had arranged to meet Chris Brasher after one of the day’s programme of events at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand in 1992 to discuss some Marathon business. We had agreed to go for dinner directly from the stadium and Chris turned up straight from the press seats looking rather dishevelled after a day’s work. Arriving at the restaurant he remarked that “this looks rather posh, I had better make myself more presentable”; with which he delved into the boot of his hire car, emerged with a large spotted handkerchief, knotted it around his neck and announced that he was ready. By the beginning of the eighties, money, if not yet paid “over the counter” was freely available to the top performers who, increasingly, competed where the money was. As a consequence, it became harder and harder to persuade Britain’s stars to turn out in the domestic events; events which generated the cash needed to run the sport. Things came to a head in 1982. The BAAB’s report on the season complained that “ all too often our top athletes find other priorities than supporting the BAAB and British athletics ”. Conscious of the need to provide spectators and television with quality athletics, the BAAB issued a “ run or don‟t go to Athens (venue of the European Championships) ” ultimatum. This had the desired effect of producing an outstanding August Bank Holiday Games at Crystal Palace stadium but soured relationships with the athletes, a problem that continued to simmer and which would return to haunt the British Athletic Federation. Later in 1982, a landmark was passed when the IAAF decided to officially recognise payments to athletes and inaugurated the trust fund system. The period of outstanding success by Britain’s athletes after 1980 had created the conditions for ITV’s successful bid for British athletics’ broadcasting rights and this, in turn, provided the money to ensure that these great athletes would be seen competing in Britain. Also during this period, administrators had begun their long and tortuous journey towards the British Athletic Federation and these often acrimonious negotiations frequently burst into public with potentially